Turing Tumble

rdf:langString Turing Tumble

rdf:langString y

rdf:langString July 2020

rdf:langString Turing Tumble is a game and demonstration of logic gates via mechanical computer. Named after Alan Turing, the game itself can (abstractly) duplicate the processes of any computer whatsoever if the game field itself were sufficiently large. This follows because the game is P-complete by the circuit value problem and PSPACE-complete if an exponential number of marbles are allowed. The device has implications for nanotechnology. The game is advertised as Turing complete; an extension of the game that allows an infinitely large board and infinitely many pieces has been shown to be Turing complete via simulations of both Rule 110 for cellular automata, as well as of Turing machines. Although it resembles a pachinko machine in its aesthetic use of gravity-fed metal balls, it is primarily a teaching device in the fundamentals of logic-computer programming, and as such is an example of gamification. The framing device in the included comic book features an astronaut who must solve sixty increasingly difficult logic problems which illustrate the fundamentals of computer programming. The impetus of the puzzle itself was the frustration of the programmer and chemistry professor Paul Boswell (along with his wife, Alyssa Boswell, a DIY maker), then at the University of Minnesota, at the lack of computing prowess of other scientists which was necessary for their own projects; he was already well known for programming complex games for Texas Instruments computers. They were also inspired by the Digi-Comp II, a precursor from the late 1960s.